Major ice, snow storm topples Quinnipiac University pole

The twenty-foot pole had stood on the campus of over 8,000 students for several decades. The university promises to conduct a poll on whether or not to bring the pole back.

Report: Several stores set up 'Customer Fighting Areas' (with referees) on Black Friday

"We want all the fights over the holiday season to take place in our state-of-the-art CFAs," said one store manager. "Preliminary studies show Customer Fighting Areas keep everyone safer and help stores divide select merchandise more fairly. [CFAs] help us manage fights much better." 

Rectangular conference room table definitely affected vibe during roundtable discussion

"I don't know," said Russell Ballard, when asked about the atmosphere at the meeting. "I can't say specifically, but it was just ... off. Things weren't flowing like they normally do. I don't know, the whole meeting was just ... different. I can't put my finger on it."

Another Manhattan office tower bans whistling while working

Manhattan--The sign by the elevator eliminates any possible confusion: No whistling while working in this building! This is a 47-story skyscraper in lower Manhattan, where management has decided to wage war against whistlers after a recently published report showing precipitous declines in work production when employees generate the high-pitched sound while performing job tasks.

Property management agencies throughout the borough vehemently deny mounting pressure from individual tenant companies to ban whistling in order to pass off the possible legal ramifications resulting from such debatable actions.

Nonetheless, the movement is spreading. Just a few blocks west, closer to the Hudson River, the lobby of another building displays a temporary banner reading: This is a Whistling-free Building. (Security guards are quick to point out a more permanent placard has been ordered that will hopefully replace the banner by next week.)  A picture on the lower right of the banner shows a pair of lips whistling enclosed in a circle with a thick, red line slashing through the middle.

These are just two office towers adopting the controversial policy, but scores more across the 24-square-mile island have already passed the rule despite protests.

The reason behind the mass ban: A Bryn Mawr College study published in early December 2012. The report refutes the very foundation beneath the success of the Seven Dwarfs' work ethic: whistling while working.

Study: Countdown pedestrian crossing signals making better New Year's Eve planners out of all of us

You're ten, maybe twelve yards away from the intersection and the race is on. The countdown crossing signal is taunting you: ten, nine, eight. You break into a jog. You didn't want to go there but you had to. Seven, six, five--this is gonna be close, as the jog may not be enough. Four, three, two--by the way, have I made plans for New Year's Eve yet? One--damn, I missed the light and I really don't think I've secured New Year's plans and tomorrow is already the the Fourth of July.

The evidence is clear, countdown crossing signals, besides making pedestrians safer, have made foot travelers better prepared for welcoming in the New Year than ever before.

Urban planners admit that the latter result was very much unintended. Countdown signals were designed to replace the blinking hand, once considered revolutionary pedestrian crossing technology, which warned pedestrians to slow up, but, really was unable to clearly indicate when the blinking hand would become the solid hand (a stop sign). The blinking hand technology stranded millions in the middle of dangerous intersections worldwide.

"The countdown crosswalk has really done for street crossing safety what the parachute did for skydiving safety," said Thomas Baker, an urban planner in Queens, New York City. Baker helped develop the countdown signal during his time at Slow Technologies, Inc, a now-defunct transportation technology firm from Nassau County, NY, in the early 2000s. Baker and a coworker continued developing the device on their own after leaving SlowTech.

Report: More than half of Brewers players dabble unsuccessfully in home brewing

St. Louis--Ryan Braun turned red with embarrassment when a local St Louis reporter asked the All-star outfielder if he brewed his own beer. The Mission Hills, CA native was unmistakeably caught off guard, hesitated a bit before finally confirming that, yes, he did brew beer in his suburban Milwaukee home. "I do brew but it's really a shoddy set up that I got going on. I play for the Brewers and I am completely ashamed of my brewing apparatus (pictured above). I use an old Igloo cooler for the fermentation process. Hey, the important part is that I have a blast doing it," said Braun. A recent report by Saint Louis University (another big brewing city) showed that nearly 56% of Brewers players are involved in home brewing in some capacity. "It's fascinating," said Dr Carol Von Hahn, head of the sociology department at this university in the Gateway to the West. "Brewers players are, in real life, brewers. They make beer. Albert Pujols can't be a Cardinal in real life and fly all around the country, but the Brewers are actually brewers. I was floored. I mean, I got teary-eyed. Foget the fact that most were horrible at it." The study was made possible by a generous grant from Professional Athletes That Home Brew (PATHB).

Residents of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah excel at Tetris

Scientists have reported that residents of three western US states-Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming- score higher on average than the other 47 states in the union on the once mega-popular video game Tetris.

Experts decided to study the trend when 15 out of the last 16 National Tetris Champions was either born or resided in one of these three states. "Last year I attended the annual Tetris Champions luncheon and, after hours of mingling, realized that the winners all had Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado in common in some way. It was quite fascinating, so I wanted to know why," said University of Pennsylvania video game analyst and tester, Dr. Peter Stringer.

The three states have something in common that no other state can claim. What is it?

Stringer, using test tubes and safety goggles, launched a four month investigation to answer this question.

"Tetris is a game of shapes and strategy. The lines are straight and not angled or curved. Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado are the only states that do not have a single natural border. They are blocks. And in Utah's case, a block with a small block on top," said Stringer.

The UPenn expert went on to say that residents born there or that live there are more aware of shapes and where to place those shapes during a fast-moving shape-themed video game.

"At first we included New Mexico in our results, but then realized that the Rio Grande River is actually a border between Texas and New Mexico for a short distance," said Stringer.

New Jersey and Florida residents scored the lowest with only only one straight border in the north with New York. "New Jersey has the Delaware on one side and the Hudson and the Atlantic on the other."

Study:Americans spend billions of hours looking for end of tape on roll

It's official. Americans spend more than two billion hours a year looking for the end of the tape on a tape roll. A recent study by Cooper-Sinclair, an efficiency expert company, analyzed the annoying occurrence in over 2,000 American households.

"I think we revealed to the American public that this is a much more serious problem than first anticipated," said Julia Van Strohman, vice chair of studies at Cooper-Sinclair.

Many, if not all, know the feeling of cutting a piece of tape, setting down the roll and then being unable to locate the end.

One man in the study said,"I spent an entire afternoon looking for that thing and I told myself that I was going to put something on the end next time so I could identify it. Like a small piece of wood or something."

Many experts feel that the time spent on looking for the end of tape could be spent eating or actually finishing the job that requires the tape. It was reported that almost 78% of the projects that participants attempted, and delayed because of searching, were never completed.

"Yes, 22% of participants eventually found the end of the tape and went on the finish the project," said Van Strohman.

One anonymous government official expressed that if "we searched for bin Laden the way we look for the end of tape I think we would have found him years ago."

Cooper-Sinclair also took an enormous amount of video for the study and plans to release a documentary film on the subject some time in late 2008. "Some of the violent reactions that tape can cause are quite comical and should be put on the big screen," laughed Van Strohman.

Study: Breast cancer 3-day actually takes 4 days